Before my home page comes up in IE, it shows "about:blank" without quote marks in the address bar. Is this normal or should it be changed? My browser now is Avant, but it happened in Microsoft IE as well.
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Before my home page comes up in IE, it shows "about:blank" without quote marks in the address bar. Is this normal or should it be changed? My browser now is Avant, but it happened in Microsoft IE as well.
if you go to internet options you can change the homepage to what you want
:)
Sounds like you may have had xupiter on your pc or someothere malware program. have you run sypbot lately and if so, that change happens when things are cleaned. It may be hot toolbar that did it too. Not sure which one. good luck.
Looks like a Home Page hijack.
Try this free utility but READ the instructions before you fix anything:
HIJACKTHIS:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/
"Trojan.StartPage" will exhibit these symptoms. Here's Symantec's page on it.
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ven...startpage.html
Not every strange occurance is trojan/virus/malware/hijack related!! My browsers always start with about:blank because, as P3-450 suggests, I choose to have it that way. What kind of lame malware would start you at a blank page?
I wont say it might or might not be a hijack, but i have had the same.
i have gone with information provided from featherkids.
It wont harm it to do a check though, but i didnt want to rush into a conclusion before chcking the obviouse things first.
But im with you on that Doug
:)
Precision Time, which is a part of GATOR, will show you "about:blank".
Absolutley. BUT!Quote:
Not every strange occurance is trojan/virus/malware/hijack related!!
about:blank Cross Site Scripting:
When you pass a specially crafted url to the Internet Explorer
about:blank url you can
conduct a Cross Site Scripting Attack with a very simple technic :
about:blank%20[ CROSS SITE SCRIPTING ATTACK]
examples:
about:blank%20<script>alert('8-D uhh !');</script>
about:blank%20<iframe src="about:blank%20<h1>;- )"></iframe>
about:blank%20<h1>XSS is behind you...</h1>
With this you can get ( steal ) cookies from the victim's browser and
perform another
attacks against the victim system.
-----------------
IMPORTANT
NOTES
-----------------
1.- The SP1 for MS Internet Explorer contains XSS protection for url
objects and you can't run this.
2.- This vulnerability is not related with the hole called about://
urls vulnerability .
3.- This vulnerability only concerns the about:blank url .
Possible:Quote:
What kind of lame malware would start you at a blank page?
www.blackholes.us
OK, OK! Mea culpa, already! :D I guess I woke up on the cranky side of the bed this morning.
One of my pet peeves is when I hear people immediatly assume that some kind of virus and/or malware is responsible for a problem without checking other, much more likely, possibilities (Occam's razor, and all that). Lets face it, most problems are not caused by malicious code (unless you want to call MS's own code malicious, which we could probably make a case for. But that's a different subject altogether...) I've heard so many people blame so many things on viruses, yet those same people couldn't be bothered with updating their virus signatures. It just makes me *C*R*A*Z*Y*
Sorry if I misinterpreted the other valuable posts after P3's. I humbly request your forgiveness, and promise to have at least one cup of coffe before posting next time! :)
Quote:
Lets face it, most problems are not caused by malicious code.....
Ah........Well...........speaking for myself, I'll have to disagree.
Also, Malicious Code software has become a multi-$$$billions spin-off industry in itself in just a few short years.
Interesting read from May, 2002:
The Future of Malicious Code
I myself will not minimalize the very, very serious area of Computer Attacks usually by persons interested only in relieving some of their wallets.
Ok...so what exactly can I do about "about:blank"? I have tried all the suggestions above and it is still there. Ad-aware did find malware, and I deleted it.
To recap: To set your default page, go to the site you want for your default start page. Click Tools, Internet Options, and click the "Use Current" button. It should add the URL to the box. Close your browser, then restart it, and you should go right to that page.
Am I to understand that you've done this and it doesn't stick?
Appended after initial post: You can also check in the registry under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page. What does it say there?
dougj - Everything is fine now, the home page that I use has always come up without any problem, but for a split second before it does, it shows "about:blank" in the address bar. I now realize that if I hit the "use blank" button under Home page in IE options, it changes to about:blank, so I guess that is the norm when you click on use blank. I did not know this and that is why I posted asking what about:blank is and if it is normal. And all the posts about spyware and viruses, etc. had me worried, but it is fine now.
Thanks everyone!
Whoa!!!
Before we all give up on this thread... I probably caused my own problem being too aggressive with my fixes after running HijackThis, but my home page settings are "greyed out" under IE's Tools/Options.
I can change my homepage by editing the registry, but how do I turn back on the ability to change this from the menu? HELP!!! ;)
Shiva - What exactly is greyed out, just the 3 buttons under the "Home Page" section or are there aother items as well?
Just the 3 buttons under the homepage settings. Everything else appears normal.
Ive read that a spyware check sorts the problem out.
Other options a IE repair
or system restore
AdAware, Spybot, and HijackThis have all been run. The spyware checks do NOT resolve my problem, neither does IE repair.
As I stated before, I'm pretty sure that my over aggressive deletions from HijackThis created this problem in the first place.
Is there in fact, a registry setting that controls this specific issue?
OK, the only thing ive found is from another forum.
Dont know if this works or not so its at your own risk.Quote:
In Regedit, navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel
In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00
Also change either or these to zero 0 instead of 1 if present:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explo
rer] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001
If you don't have this key, browse to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
and in the right hand pane, double click "Local Page" and set equal to
"C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm" (no quotes) which will hopefully set your Home
Page to blank and then allow you to subsequently modify it using Internet
Options.
Exit regedit and reboot.
When you reboot, you should be able to change the home page again.
Id backup you registry/make a restore point.
There's almost *always* a registry key to govern settings like this one. One easy way to manage these is to use the POLEDIT applet and the associated .ADM file from Microsoft. Even many third party publishers provide these as well. You run POLEDIT, import the ADM, then click FIle, Open Registry and you have all those keys and their accepted values just a mouse click away. The for IE that includes the specific setting you're looking for is bundled with the IE Administration Kit. Its called INETRES.ADM. This method is often a much easier way of finding and changing those obscure registry keys. I use it quite a lot, kinda like a customizable TweakUI. Definately worth getting to know.
Spybot has an option in the "Immunize" settings to lock out changing the homepage, it makes the registry modification for you, although I haven't tried it myself. If the homepage is locked, you may be able to uncheck it from Spybot.Quote:
Originally posted by shiva_42
AdAware, Spybot, and HijackThis have all been run.
Might be worth a shot..?
KV
If, in fact, you did cause the problem when deleting in HiJack this, there is an area in the program to restore backups, if you made a backup. This can be found by clicking the config button.
Hey thanks DuaneB. I knew it was one of the culprets that could cause this. Also glad to see that dougj changed his attitude. He was scaring me. When I read comments like that it makes me reluctant to even answer someones questions. Scarey.... :rolleyes:
Regardless, hope this prob. gets fixed. There are lots of great helpers in this forum.
P3-450:
"In Regedit, navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Inte
rnet Explorer\Control
Panel
In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00 "
This did the trick. At one time(?) I had POLEDIT on this machine, but have since misplaced it. But this solved my immediate problem, thanks for the info!!!
:D
I woudn't say I've changed my attitude, exactly. I still think people too often jump to the conclusion that a virus/malware is responsible for thier problems, and ignore more "normal" causes. However, I can appreciate that sometimes even the simplest of problems (like the one that started this thread) can be caused by nasty programs. My point is that regardless of the symptom, people should try to systematically evaluate the problem and find cause, not just assume it's this or that and go blindly trying things to fix it. This often causes more problems that it cures.Quote:
Originally posted by brewster
Also glad to see that dougj changed his attitude. He was scaring me. When I read comments like that it makes me reluctant to even answer someones questions. Scarey.... :rolleyes:
Anyway, sorry I scared you {BOO!} and I hope you weren't serious about not posting based on my (or other peoples) comments. We need all the voices we can get!
Glad it worked shiva:)Quote:
Originally posted by shiva_42
P3-450:
"In Regedit, navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Inte
rnet Explorer\Control
Panel
In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00 "
This did the trick. At one time(?) I had POLEDIT on this machine, but have since misplaced it. But this solved my immediate problem, thanks for the info!!!
:D